


At The End of The World

by Truly_Happy



Category: The Walking Dead & Related Fandoms, The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant, Drabble Collection, F/M, Gen, Kids in the apocalypse, Light Angst, almost everyone lives, to a degree
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 09:45:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16951698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Truly_Happy/pseuds/Truly_Happy
Summary: In which Duck and Ben live, and (almost) everything changes





	At The End of The World

**Author's Note:**

> Okay heads up this is unedited. Also kind of random. Several timeskips, more or less organized in order of the canon timeline. Don't forget to smash that kudos button and/or leave a comment- I'm always eager to hear feedback!

Duck sits in the RV, his mother wheezing as she fights for breath. “Kenny, we need to talk about this-” Lee starts. Clementine is curled up next to Duck, he chest rising and falling steadily. Ben is across from him, on the floor, going through his backpack. Duck pulls his knees to his chest, trying to make himself look smaller. 

“No!” Kenny shouts. “No we don’t! We’re fine!” Ben’s once pristine blue and white jacket is spotted with red. Duck wonders whose blood is on that coat. 

“Duck…” Katja wheezes in the front. Duck glances at her, his eyes meeting hers. He wants to hug her. He wants to run to her and curl up in his lap and sob like a little baby. He wants Lee and his dad to stop shouting. He wishes doug were here. Or Carly. But they’re dead now. Gunned down by Lilly, who had stared angrily at them all, glowering and muttering under her breath dangerously until they’d stopped so Lee and Kenny could siphon gas. They’d taken her with them, and she hadn’t come back. Clementine had averted her eyes from Lee when he’d returned. Duck had done the same. It’s been getting harder and harder to meet his own father’s eyes. Or look at his mother. Ben had stayed on the RV with them when Lee and Kenny had gone for gas. He’d pulled out an ancient, battered copy of Harry Potter. The second one, with the huge snake. 

“Where did you get that?” Clem had gasped excitedly. 

“I’ve had it in my bag for a while.” Ben smiled at her, and Duck had to smile himself. He’d never really been a Harry Potter fan, but Clem had seemed excited. 

“Can you read it to us?” Duck had asked in a hoarse voice. He’d been crying for hours after they’d gotten on the RV, hovering over his mother. 

“I don’t see why not.” Ben had shrugged, grinning at them. Ben had read to them for hours, until Lee and Kenny had returned. It was nice, being able to forget. Duck had interrupted every few moments to ask questions, like ‘who’s Hermione? What’s a squid?’ And Ben would answer each question patiently, explaining every little detail to Duck that he didn’t understand. 

“The fuck is this?” Kenny had seethed, tearing the book out of Ben’s hands when he and Lee had returned. 

“Harry potter!” Clem says brightly. Ben tries to make himself look smaller, curling in on himself. Duck pities him. It’s no easy thing to be on the receiving end of Kenny’s wrath. 

“You were supposed to be keeping watch!” Kenny throws the book to the floor, stomping on it. 

“Kenny. Stop.” Lee had commanded sternly, standing in the doorway to the RV, his arms crossed. 

“You don’t tell me what to do!” Kenny had shouted, stomping one last time on the book. Lee sighs. 

“Let’s just go,” He says. 

“Where’s Lilly?” Duck asks quietly. 

“She’s not coming back.” Kenny says sharply, moving to the front. Lee picks up the book, handing it to Ben. The teenager takes it gratefully. Clem looks worriedly at Kenny. 

 

Katjaa dies. Duck can’t make himself go with his father and Lee to put her down. Can’t make himself tear his eyes away from the candy Chuck had given them. Finally, he pockets his candy and shuffles over to Ben, where he’s talking with Chuck. Clementine follows Duck hesitantly, not looking at Chuck. “Can we read?” Duck asks Ben in a small voice. Ben offers him a weak smile. A gunshot rings throughout the woods. They all flinch, except for Chuck. 

“Of course.” Ben replies. Clem is quiet, glancing over her shoulder where Lee and Kenny had disappeared into the trees. “Should we hop into the train?” Ben asks. 

“That might be a good idea.” Clementine says seriously. Duck nods. Ben grabs his bag and they all head towards the train. 

“Mind if I come with?” Chuck asks, tagging along. 

“Sure!” Clem says chipperly. Chuck smiles at her. Duck just wants to lay down. 

 

Lee comes. He cuts Clem’s hair. Duck watches enviously. His mom used to cut his hair like that, during the summers when it was too hot. Ben is outside- taking a break from reading. Chuck is out too. Duck isn’t sure where. He doesn’t particularly care either. He isn’t sure what to make of Chuck yet. He gave Duck candy, a rare commodity. He listened respectfully to the book. But he’s still just… Chuck. Lee doesn’t look at Duck while he cuts Clem’s hair. Duck wants him to. He wants Lee to be like he is with Clementine towards Duck. He wants his dad to stop acting so angry. He wants his dad to come back and hug him. For someone to tell him it’s all going to be alright. 

 

“Christa and what’s-his-face-” 

“Omid. His name is Omid.” Ben reminds Duck tiredly, for the millionth time that day

“I don’t trust them.” Duck finishes, frowning and crossing his arms. 

“I think they’re nice.” Clem says chipperly. 

“Only because Lee does.” Duck says. “They’re hiding something. I know it.” He insists. 

“Are you sure you’re not just being paranoid?” Clem asks, fiddling with her walkie talkie as she sits demurely in the corner. 

“I’m not being paranoid!” Duck asserts, as he paces. 

“Duck. Calm down.” Ben lays on hand on Duck’s shoulder. 

“No! They’re hiding something!” Duck shouts, slapping Ben’s hand away. Ben recoils, giving Duck  _ The Look  _ as he cradles his hand to his chest. Clem stares at Duck, stricken. No one hits Ben. Ever. No one is allowed to hit Ben. It’s one of many unspoken rules between the three. You don’t get mad at Ben. You just don’t. 

Ben had already told Duck, the three of them half hysterical with grief in the middle of the night on the train. “I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry.” He’d sobbed, over and over again, tears dripping down his rat like face. 

“What?” Clem had awoken right after Duck, sitting up and shining the flashlight Lee had given her in Ben’s face. 

“I’m sorry!” Ben had hiccuped pathetically. 

“About what?” Duck had asked tiredly, rubbing his eyes. He and Clementine exchange worried glances. 

“Your mom- I’m the one who- I- all my fault-” Ben hiccups. It is then that Duck is struck by how young Ben looks. He’s just a kid. Just like him and Clem. 

“What’s all your fault?” Clem asks Ben gently. His bony shoulders shake as he sobs. Duck freezes. 

“What?” He’d asked, in a low, angry tone, clutching the thin sweatshirt he’d been wearing for ages. 

“I- I brought them to us. With the drugs. And there was- they said they had my-” Ben sobs. Any anger Duck had felt towards Ben evaporates. Ben’s too sad to hate. Too kind. Too afraid. Ben’s a lot of things. But he’s not hateable. Not for Duck at least. Ben is fragile. Not at all suited to the apocalypse. It is that night in the train car, as Ben sobs about Katjaa, that Clem and Duck reach an unspoken agreement. Ben is a good person. He’s always been good. He’s just weak. And no one will ever take advantage of that while they’re around. No one will ever hurt Ben while they’re around either. Deep down, Duck knows that it’s a childish thing. Ben will die, for all of the same reasons that they want to protect him. And they are kids, Ben is almost an adult. How are they supposed to protect him?

.

.

.

Lee is dead. Duck’s dad might be dead. Omid and Christa- Duck still doesn’t trust them, try as he might. Even with the revelation of Christa’s pregnancy, Even with Omid’s half-hearted attempts at kindness, Duck doesn't trust them. At night, Ben reads to him and Clem. Ben helps Christa when she gets bigger. Helps bury Omid after he dies. Christa sobs so loud Duck is afraid she’ll draw walkers. Clem cries a little too, but not as much as she’d mourned Lee. Duck stays dry-eyed through it all, staring at his sneakers, dirty and full of holes. Ben hugs Christa, too. Tries to tell her it’ll all be alright. He does more work, too. Finding firewood, paging through a book of wild plants they they find in a long-abandoned bookstore, trying to find the ones they can eat and the ones they can’t. Carefully constructing elaborate schemes to draw walkers away from the areas where they scavenge. He teaches Duck and Clem as much as he can. Ben tried to show Christa, and she’d listened politely, but she didn’t get it the way Clem and Duck did.

.

.

.

Christa has the baby. The baby doesn’t live. They don’t talk about it. They just keep walking, after Ben has dug the tiny grave. Christa seems emptier after. Clem doesn’t babble as brightly. To be fair, she hasn’t really spoken as much after Omid. And Ben- well, Ben was never really much of a talker himself. Duck can’t bring himself to talk either. If his mom were here she’d ask him ‘what’s wrong?’ And he’d tell her. She’d call in his dad. They’d all talk, and things would always be better. Except for his mom is dead. His dad is dead. And Duck finds that the long, stretched out silences as the small group- Christa, Ben, Clementine and himself- walks, are oddly comforting and disconcerting in equal measure. Ben is still reading to them, and the old copy of Harry Potter is falling apart at its spine. Eventually, they stop in yet another long abandoned town somewhere in the midwest. Or Duck thinks it’s the midwest. Geography, and finding their location on maps, has been getting harder as they continue walking. After Ben has drawn away the walkers by grabbing a trash can lid and tossing it with a clatter across the parking lot of the strip mall. “I’ll keep watch.” Christa volunteers quietly. Duck nods as he grabs his gun. He and Clementine exchange glances. They know better than to ask why Christa always seems to take guard. Ben returns, breathless, and covered in blood. 

“I got some of them.” Ben says. 

“Christa’s taking watch again.” Clementine says, in a hushed whisper. Ben’s mouth sets in a hard line. 

“Well. I guess someone has to?” Ben says awkwardly. Duck resists the urge to roll his eyes. Ben always defends Christa. 

“Let’s just go.” Duck mutters darkly, scuffing his worn sneaker on the once-pristine asphalt outside of the store, which is now sunbleached and cracked. 

“Right.” Ben coughs. “We should go.” 

Clem is the first to walk up to the store. Duck almost expects the once-automatic sliding doors to open for her. They don’t, of course. “What are you staring at?” Clem asks them. “Come help me open these things!” Duck nods, wiping his nose with the sleeve of his hoodie. He steps forward. Ben casts a glance back at Christa before going to help them shove the doors open. 

“We really should get a crowbar.” Duck groans. 

“Heave on the count of three?” Ben says weakly. Clem nods sniffling. Duck hopes they find tissues or something. 

“One, two, three-” She starts, they all heave at once, just barely managing to shift the door enough for them to slip in. The darkness of the massive, windowless store suddenly seems so much more daunting. 

“What do you think this place was?” Duck asks, in a hushed whisper. 

“Maybe a walmart?” Clem suggests. 

“Nah. It looks more like a Target.” Ben shakes his head. “Or some sort of strip mall.” Clem and Duck exchange confused glances. They don’t ask Ben what a strip mall is. They’ve long since learned that he can go off on long tangents without end if you ask even the simplest question. Like what the ‘Nyan Cat’ song was. Or ‘Vine.’ The three of them slip in quietly, long-worn sneakers padding against the ancient, cracked linoleum tiles. Only to be met by a second pair of doors. 

“Well shit.” Duck swears. 

“Language.” Ben admonishes. 

“Motherfuck.” Clem retorts, grinning at Duck. He grins back. 

“Watch your profanity.” Ben admonishes, shaking his head. Yet another reference that they don’t understand. Duck had once asked Ben to explain it, and he’d reached subconsciously to his pants pocket where he must have kept his fancy phone back when they still worked. Christa does the same thing. Reaching for a wallet that isn’t there when they walk past a cash register, or a pair of reading glasses when she can’t quite make something out. 

“So what do we do now?” Duck asks, after they all loiter a few moments, examining the door. 

“...I’m not sure.” Ben admits. 

“We could try using Christa’s crowbar to pry it open?” Clem suggests. 

“We lost that to the horde earlier.” Duck reminds her. 

“...oh right.” Clem nods. “I forgot.” Ben sighs, as he crouches to peer at the door handle. 

“Let’s just move on to the next store.” He finally sighs. “We might attract unwanted attention if we try to break this open.” 

Then they hear the shouting. Duck whips around, walking towards the door, peering out at Christa. His heart nearly stops as he scrambles back. 

“What is it?” Clem asks urgently. 

“Big dudes.” Duck shakes his head. 

“Fuck.” Ben hisses under his breath. He glances back at Clem and Duck. “I’ll go check it out. You two stay here.” Clem nods, casting a withering glare at Duck. She already knows where this is going to go. 

“I want to go.” Duck says stubbornly, ignoring Clem. She rolls her eyes, sighing. 

“Stay here.” Ben says sternly. 

“No! You’re not my dad! I’m coming with.” Duck stomps his foot like a toddler. But Ben is already out the door as Clem retreats into the shadows of the store. 

“I’m going.” Duck says. Clem sighs heavily. 

“Duck, that’s a stupid-” But he’s already out the door. She sighs again. He’ll be back in a few minutes anyways. The worst that will happen is Christa and Ben will get mad at her. 

Except for Duck and Ben don’t come back. 

.

.

.

The next time they see Clem, they’ve been rounded up by Carver. The last few weeks have been miserable. Work without end, and Jane won’t quit shooting Ben dirty looks because on the first day he accidentally fell on her. Just when Duck had given up hope of escape, or ever seeing Clem again, then she shows up. With some new group in tow. One of which, is Kenny. “Dad!” Duck exclaims, rushing forward to embrace his father. Kenny laughed, hugging him back. 

“Duck!” Kenny hugs Duck tight. It feels nice, being hugged like this again. 

“I thought you were dead!” Duck laughs, holding his dad tight. 

“Kenny? Who’s this?” A woman asks, staring at Kenny holding Duck. Kenny turns to smile at the woman. 

“Sarita! This is my son Duck!” He says happily. “Duck, this is Sarita. She’s my… well, maybe you could think of her as your new mom?” Duck’s heart nearly stops. He extracts himself from his father’s hug. 

“Wait, what?” He asks. He glances at Sarita, and his dad. He hopes this is some kind of sick joke.

It’s not. 

.

.

.

AJ is born kicking and screaming, the walkers underneath them groan, as Ben holds the baby gently, shushing him. It’s the first of many shushes Clementine loves him the very moment she sets eyes on him, Duck can tell. He purses his lips when she holds AJ for the first time. When she rocks him. The way she looks at the baby, babbles at him softly, changes his diapers- how can anyone smile when changing a diaper? She and Ben trade off on holding him as they walk. 

Oh, and there’s Sarah. She’s okay. Duck doesn’t mind her- she’s quiet. Always sticking close to Clem, never looking anyone in the eyes. Even as years pass by and that night with Jane and Kenny- how can he say Dad, after everything they saw. 

So now they have a baby, who Clem never seems to leave alone for too long and is fiercely protective of, and Sarah, who is more of a shadow than a person, trailing behind them. And things aren’t good- not by a longshot- but they’re not bad either. They don’t talk about Alvin, who Duck barely knew. They don’t talk about Kenny, a knife stabbed towards Jane’s heart, his eyes wide and unfocused, covered in blood. The way Jane had screamed. Or Rebecca, her cold, dead jaws inching towards a squalling AJ. The hum of a truck as it drives off in a distance. 

They don’t talk about a lot of things. It’s the best they’ve been in a while. 


End file.
